


Use Your Stories As A Weapon

by LadyBrooke



Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien, كتاب ألف ليلة وليلة | Kitaab 'alf layla wa-layla | One Thousand and One Nights
Genre: Crossover, Epistolary, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-13
Updated: 2017-10-13
Packaged: 2019-01-08 11:04:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12253050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyBrooke/pseuds/LadyBrooke
Summary: Berúthiel grew up visiting the court of Scheherazade's granddaughter.Now she returns to it.





	Use Your Stories As A Weapon

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lunarium](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunarium/gifts).



My dearest love,

This letter will hopefully reach you before I do, so that you may be prepared for my arrival.

My marriage to Tarannon has finally been broken, and I am now exiled from those lands. We have stopped in Umbar and are now being treated by the Prince of the city, who has assured me that my letter will be sent with all haste. More importantly, he assures me that stories will be sent back to Gondor conveying that my ship flew past the port and they have no idea of my fate, so Tarannon’s spies will hopefully not follow me to your home.

I have arranged to exchange this ship for a river barge to bring me as far down river as it can, and then I shall cross into your lands and hope to find someone willing to sell me a camel to bring me to your side. I bring with me scant possessions, though I have acquired ten cats that the Men of Gondor considered cursed by association with me.

I am sorry that I was unable to write to you over these last few years. He had me watched and read any letters I sent, and I did not want to expose you to his anger at me or arouse Gondor’s armies to invade your lands because I love a foreign Princess and not their King. You know how some men are, and I am afraid that their King is one of them. He is so angered that I did not love him, and certainly did not wish to live with him, that he has ordered my name erased from history – as if I care that he has ordered that cursed name they ordered me to use instead of my own erased. My real name will live on in the histories of my people and yours, and that is more pleasing than me than any degree of remembrance in the histories of Gondor would be.

You must be wondering how, if he is that stubborn, I have finally managed to gain my freedom after so many long years. Do you remember when we were young and your grandmother came to visit your mother and told us of how she originally came to marry your grandfather? That she kept him so interested with her tales during the night and ended at such a point that he had no chance but to keep her alive so that she could continue her story the next night, and that by the end of their nights together, he had fallen so in love with her that he married her?

I can picture you now laughing at me, and saying that of course you remember, she was your grandmother, and then saying that perhaps you shouldn’t have introduced us, because she just encouraged me to stay in with the books and learn all I could of history and literature, while you wished me to come with you and explore the lands (and find magical lamps – I dearly hope you eventually found one while I was gone).

But there is a point to me reminding you of that. I have no doubt that if I had not been able to convince them that I knew things I should not know, according to their beliefs of my people, they would have seen me as weak and my fate would have been to remain there forever and be forced where he wanted me to go. But I knew what they saw as their secrets, and I knew their histories, and I knew everything about them. They believed my cats to be spies, which worked to my advantage.

I told them some of the stories your grandmother told us and that I read in her books, and they believed me to have dark powers that I used against them after I spoke of jinn. There were times I feared they would kill me because of their fears, but that fate I judged to be better than remaining a powerless prisoner.

In the end their fear proved to be powerful enough to keep them from killing me for years, until he ordered me sent on a ship away from his lands, never to set foot there again.

So you see, my love, those years in a library did prove useful, though I look forward to spending my future years at your side, if you will have me.

Love,

Zumurrud

 

Zumurrud,

Your letter reached me faster than I suspect you thought it would.

I have left this letter for you in the hands of my most trusted servant, who has traveled to meet you at our borders, along with a selection of men to bring you to my side. If I could leave court for your side, I would, but my duty keeps me far from you.

Your return was unlooked for, but deeply longed for. Rumor had reached us of Tarannon’s unhappiness with you, though no word of what he planned to do had leaked out.

Your cats are more than welcome here, and my mother looks forward to your return – she says that you have used all of Grandmother’s tricks far better than any member of our family ever has, and have more than proved you belong with us and not in Gondor. I sent word to your family that you were coming to serve my court after your exile from Gondor, and that their help in determining your future was unwished for.

I desire you to remain with me, though I will not keep you away from your libraries. I merely request that you spend some time in our bedchambers, and do not leave a book under my pillow as well as your own. As your escape proves, you use your stories as a weapon as much as any man uses a sword as his. I dearly hope that you will share some of the stories with me again, specifically the ones concerning anatomy upon our reunion.

Your dearest,

Dunyazad

**Author's Note:**

> Berúthiel's alternate name is taken from 1,001 Nights, where Zummurud also ends up on a quest to return to her love. Dunyazad is named for her great-aunt in this story. 
> 
> Their reunion definitely involves an exchange of erotic information, which unfortunately loses something when conveyed in letter form (mainly because I couldn't figure out why they would be writing letters to each other post reunion, and there's only so much you can send letters back and forth without a carrier service). :P


End file.
